Mad March HareSaturday 11th March 2017

HistoryPast Winners

Unlike last year’s event at the same venue the weather was good, with a roughly 8 mph wind from the South and cloudy giving way to sunny periods later. It poured with rain last year and attendance was understandably low while this year all the usual suspects turned up for a keenly fought event.

Peters Shepherd and Jackson were delayed by an errant SatNav that couldn’t tell Port from Starboard and thought the route from Northampton to Cotswold involved the M4! So the first race started without them, round a double triangular course using the existing buoys which was really too long for Footys. This was won by John Burgoine with David Wilkinson second, both with ICE boats and Sid Sims third with his Ibex, a modified Slim by Peter J with a more rectangular cross-section.

Then Peter S and J arrived with the disposable buoys and rescue boat and laid a more normal Footy course. Peter S then started an amazingly fast and consistent series of 15 races with 7 wins, 7 seconds and a 3rd. The rest of us struggled to keep up, with John B winning 4 races, Mike Ewart 3 and David W 2. Sid S had a lot of winch problems, with the ones on his Ibex and the replacement ICE both packing up.

He completed the day with a third winch on a borrowed cassette. Peter J with his Ibex had a couple of second places and three thirds but otherwise it did not seem to like the conditions, which were fairly wavy for a Footy with an almost maximum fetch of wind over the length of the 57 Acre lake. The wind lightened in the afternoon and moved round more to south-west with a corresponding course change.

There was a minimum of fluky wind shifts and a premium on boat speed and sailing a good course throughout with relatively long periods on each tack.

22ndPeter S was a clear winner with just 19 points, even having to name one of his second places as a discard, with John B second and Mike E third. The ICE and Slim-based designs were equally spread through the finishing order so they seem to be equally good compromises under the Footy Class rules.

It was nice to see Colin Robertson from the Cheddar club and Keith Parrott from Frensham sailing and several non-sailing supporting Cotswold club members during the day including Bob Chandler, Peter Huntley, Rob Davies, and Barry Truman. Also, former Footy sailer and designer Scott Wallis came over from Clevedon, with a model seaplane and helped a lot with the scoring, race officer duties and excellant photography.

The next Footy open event is the Videlo Globe Trophy @ Frensham Pond Wednesday 12th April 2017 with ACT 2 of the Extreme Footy Series taking place in Abington Park Sat 22nd April 2017

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